Reward offered for sprayer of Worthing's racist graffiti

Hate-filled slogans were daubed on walls at 14 spots across Durrington in the latest outbreak, which was discovered on the morning of April 11.

Almost two weeks previously, similar messages were sprayed on fences, walls and garage doors in the area near The Quashetts, Broadwater, and near to Newland Road and Ivy Arch Road.

Police, council and community leaders have spoken out to condemn the vandalism and suggest how those responsible can be caught and how the public can help prevent it happening again.

One prominent local Muslim has spoken of his fear that the messages are not just the work of ignorant youngsters.

Ali Abdul Rahman, chairman of Worthing Islamic Society, said: "You can understand kids messing about. They just hear things and do silly things.

"But if it's organised or an institutional group of people are behind it then there's something quite seriously wrong that we need to be worried about."

Mr Rahman said an increased police presence could deter idle youngsters from crime, while investment in youth facilities, or a more "civic-minded" education, could offer them an acceptable alternative.

He said: "You find kids are doing things and there's nobody around to stop them. CCTV can only catch some people. That's no deterrent to these kids."

Colin Hunt, Worthing Council's street scene officer, said outbreaks of racist graffiti were rare and happened in patches.

He said linking the council's database with a police system was helping to identify hotspots in the town where CCTV could be considered, such as The Quashetts in Broadwater, as those responsible generally don't travel far.

But he admitted his experience suggested the recent racist graffiti was possibly by an older hand.

He said: "It may be youths, but in some circumstances we are fairly certain it's not, that it's maybe an older group.

"I suspect it's not our normal crews. Some difficult words have been spelled correctly.

"And in some of the areas, the height of it is taller rather than the height of someone younger.

"It could be one or two disturbed individuals."

He urged the public to help combat those responsible by ringing the council's 24-hour hotline, 01903 221090, to try to reduce the messages' impact.

He said: "All the public can do is report it as soon as they see it.

"I know it's after the event but if we can remove it as soon as we can the number of people upset by it is minimalised.

"Worthing and Adur spends 100,000 a year on tackling graffiti.

"That could be spent on contributing to the environment rather than maintaining it."

Inspector Howard Hodges said said: "The purpose of the reward was to encourage people who may know whether it was one of their friends or family who might use those phrases, or scribble them in a jotter.

"It's to tug at their conscience. We need help in trying to solve it."

He added: "We would be particularly keen to hear from anybody through the 0845 60 70 999 number, or anonymously through Crimestoppers 0800 555 111, letting us know of people they live with, near to, go to school with, people they know hold those views."

For more on this story, see the Worthing Herald.

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